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You can save on cooling costs in your St Petersburg home by using an attic fan or whole house fan. Some of the older homes in St Pete already have attic fans but few of the new homes have them. An Inman article today details many benefits of an attic fan, including not only lowering your cooling costs, but extending the life of your roof. Bianchina reports that replacing the stale house air by fresh air can also provide a health benefit.

Most of the existing fans (they are now generally called whole house fans though we usually refer to the older ones as attic fans) are in the attic of a house, with a large grill exposed in the ceiling below, often in a central hallway, and louvers that open and close. The fan is framed or boxed in the attic and the louvers and fan motor are often operated by a switch in the hallway. Here in Florida homes are generally not cooled entirely by the attic fan, though some of the older homes relied only on the fan. Usually it’s a supplement for central air conditioning. If you’re away from the house during the day, you can set the temperature up higher and then, when you get home, turn on the attic fan for 5 minutes and it’s amazing how much cooler the house is.

You can buy new fan systems, of course. You might also check to see if an existing, unused fan, can be repaired and made operational – though it might be less expensive and more efficient to buy a new unit.